2nd Annual SF International Piano Festival

2nd Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival: Love and Loss

The penultimate concert features special guest mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich with artistic director Jeffrey LaDeur at the piano in a program of Beethoven, Schumann, and Chopin. After intermission, LaDeur shares two imposing masterworks by Chopin: the Sonata in B-flat Minor op.35 (known for its funeral march) and the great F Minor Fantasy op.49.

Mezzo Soprano Kindra Scharich has been praised by The San Francisco Chronicle for her "exuberant vitality", "fearless technical precision", "deep-rooted pathos" and "irrepressible musical splendor." As a dedicated recitalist, she has performed over 150 art songs in 10 languages and given solo recitals the The American Composer's Forum, La Jolla Athenaeum, The Wagner Society, Lieder Alive and the acclaimed Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, Ms. Scharich will continue her partnership with Brazilian pianist Ricardo Ballestero, performing all of the non-Portuguese repertoire of the great Brazilian composer Alberto Nepomuceno. A great proponent of Lieder, she and the Alexander String Quartet have premiered Zakarias Grafilo’s transcriptions of the Mahler’s great orchestral Mahler (Rückert, Kindertotenlieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) and will be recording them in May for release later this year. Symphonic works performed include Les nuits d’été, Rückert Lieder, Pulcinella, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and the great choral works of J.S. Bach and Handel. In the world of opera, Ms. Scharich has sung over 30 roles in the lyric mezzo repertoire, most recently and to much acclaim as Minerva in West Edge Opera's production of Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and The Fox in The Little Prince with Opera Parallele. Enthusiastic about working with living composers, she is featured in David Conte’s recent recording Everyone Sang, to be released by Arsis Summer 2018 and has premiered works by Kurt Erickson, Janis Mattox and Anno Schreier (July 2018).

Praised for his "glowing sound” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “dazzling pianism” (Sarasota Herald Tribune) Jeffrey LaDeurhas distinguished himself as an artist of insight and integrity. Engagements at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Conservatory, Eastman Theater, Banff Centre, and other prestigious venues were followed by an invitation from the Naumburg Foundation to make his Carnegie Hall debut. LaDeur is pianist and founding member of the acclaimed Delphi Trio, and Founder and Artistic Director of New Piano Collective.

Jeffrey maintains a repertoire of over forty concerti; recent performances include appearances with the Oakland Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Denver Philharmonic, and members of the South Dakota Symphony. He returns to Carnegie’s Weill Hall to culminate his survey of Debussy’s solo piano music, its influences and inspirations, on the anniversary of the composer’s death in March, 2018. Jeffrey’s debut album, featuring works by Rameau and Debussy, will be released on the MSR Classics in summer of 2017.

As pianist of the Delphi Trio, LaDeur has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, the Smithsonian Museum, and the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands. In addition to his activities with the Trio, Jeffrey has collaborated with chamber music legends such as Robert Mann, Bonnie Hampton, Geoff Nuttall, and Ian Swensen.

After making his orchestral debut with the Eastman Philharmonia in his first semester of study at the Eastman School, Jeffrey completed his B.M. in piano performance under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys. LaDeur holds a M.M. in chamber music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied with Yoshikazu Nagai and at the Taos School of Music, with Robert McDonald. Jeffrey counts among his principal teachers Mark Edwards and Annie Sherter, a student of Vlado Perlemuter and Alfred Cortot.